Tuesday, July 21, 2015

THINGS PAGANS AND POPES SHOULD KNOW

“12 Things Pagans Should Know About the Pope’s Environmental Encyclical”

“Yesterday, the Pope’s historic environmental encyclical was published. The document is almost 200 pages long, which means that most of us won’t read it, at least not all of it. So here are 12 things Pagans should know about the Pope’s environmental encyclical …

“9. The Pope calls for a “radical change” in our understanding of the economy and progress. (¶ 171) He condemns the “deification” of the market” (¶ 56) and a “magical conception of the market” (¶ 190) (referring apparently to the “invisible hand”).”

Comment

For someone who claims a special line to God he shoild know the source of belief in “miraculous” invisible hands is a purely human belief on much the same scale of belief in Gods. In fact, the metaphor of the invisible hand was widely known among theologians and a few authors long before Adam Smith used it (twice + once as a noun on his Works) in the second half of the 18th century (see Peter Harrison, Journal of the History of Ideas, 2014).